Fluid-pressure speeding device.



N0. 7|7,308. Patented Deb. 30, I902.

v J. WIECHMANN. FLUID PRESSURE SPEEDING DEVICE.

. (Application filed June 28, 1902.) (no Model.)

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J. WIECHMANN. FLUID PRESSURE SPEEDING DEVICE.

(Application filed June 28, 1902.) a (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2/III7IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII \\II m0 WITNESSES: 5

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UNITED I STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN WIEOHMANN, OF ALBANY, NEW YORK.

FLUID-PRESSURE SPEEDING 'DEVICE.

:iPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 717,308, datedDecember 30, 1902..

Application filed June 28,1902. Serial No. 113,620- (No model.)

New York, have invented new and useful Im provements in Fluid-PressureSpeeding Devices, of which the following is a full, clear,

and exact description.

My invention relates to a fluid-pressure speeding devicethat is to say,to a device normally employing fluid-pressure and used as atransmission-gear from a driving-shaft to a driven shaft, the relativespeeds of which are controllable at will.

My invention is also used as a reversinggear.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part ofthis specification, in which similar characters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a sideelevation of my device. Fig. 2 is a plan view of thesame. Fig. 3 is a vertical section upon the line a: a: of Fig. 2lookingin the direction of the arrow; and Fig. 4 is a reduced viewsomewhat similar to Fig. 3, but showing certain of the parts occupyingpositions relatively different from the positions occupied by the sameparts in said Fig. 3. I

From an elevated tank 1 a pipe 2 leads to the lower portion of a hollowcasing 3, in which are journaled the revoluble shafts 4 5, provided withstuffing-boxes 6 7 8 9 and closed by means of heads 10 11 12 13 afterthe manner of rotary pumps. The shaft 4is provided with a crank 14,which is operated by a pitman 15 for the purpose of giving motion to theshaft 4. This shaft in its relation to my invention serves as adriving-shaft.

Inside of the casing 3 and substantially concentric with the heads 101112 13 are camlike surfaces 16 17, located adjacent to the severalheads of the casing. Revoluble members 18 19, provided with movableblades 20 21 22 23, after the manner of rotary pump-pistons, areconnected with the shafts 4 5, and thereby rendered revoluble. Theblades are provided with slots 24 25 in the usual manner, so as to lockeach other in position within certain limits and yet allow a reasonableplay of each blade. The casing is provided with channels 27 28, as shownmore particularly in Figs. 3 and 4. An inlet air-pipe 29 is providedwith an inwardly-opening valve 30, mounted within a Valve-casing 30 andnormally held against its seat by a spiral spring 31. This valve can beopened whena partial vacuum is formed within the pipe 29. Connected withthe pipe 29 is another pipe 32, this pipe being provided with anenlargement 33, containing a revoluble valve 34.

The channel 28 in the bottom of the casing 3 is provided with anenlargement 35, within which is neatly fitted a revoluble valve 36 forthe purpose of partially closing the channel 28. This valve is rigidlyconnected with an external head 37, mounted upona lever 36, as shownmore particularly in Fig. 1. An arc-shaped pitman-38 is pivoted at 39upon the lever 36 and is provided at its opposite end with a slot 40,engaging a crank-pin 41 upon the upper end of the crank which crankoperates the valve 34. The arrangement of the parts is such that whenthe lever 36 is moved to the left the sector-shaped pitman 38 moves tothe left until the right-hand portion 43 of the slot lodges against thecrank-pin 41, whereupon the crank-pin is pressed to the left, carryingwith it the crank 35", thus gradually opening the valve 34. This samemovement of the lever 36 gradually closes the valve 36. The immediateeffect of moving the lever 36 is to move only the valve 36. If, however,the movement of the lever 36 is continued, the valve 34 is affected.

Located centrally within the casing is a large reversing-valve 44,provided with channels 45, 46, 47, and 48, as shown more particularly inFigs. 3and 4. This valve is held in position by the framework 49 withinthe casing and normally occupies the position indicated in Fig. 3, butis capable of occupying the position indicated in Fig. 4. This valve isoperated by means of a lever 50, provided with a head 51, this headbeing mutilated by the formation of the concave surfaces 52 53, as shownmore particularly in Fig. 1. Either of these concave surfaces may beengaged by the convex surface 54 upon the head 37 of the lever 36. Theobject of this arrangement is to prevent the reversing-lever from beingmoved while the mechanism is in motion, as hereinafter explained.

The lever 36 is actuated by means of a manually-operated rod 55, pivotedthereto at 56. Similarly, the reversing-lever 50 is pivotally connectedat 57 with the manually-0perated rod 58. The manually-operated rods 55and 58 therefore constitute the means for operating the cut-off lever 36and the reversing-lever 50. The reversing-valve 44 is protected by meansof a stuffing-box 59, disposed adjacent to the head 60. (See Figs. 1 and2.)

The operation of my device is as follows: The tank 1 being partiallyfilled with water,oil, or other appropriate liquid, the driving-shaft 4is set in motion in a contra-clockwise direction-that is to say,adirection contrary to that of a clock. The parts being in the positonindicated in Fig. 3, the liquid is forced to the left through thechannels 27 and 45 t0 the revoluble member 19, thus impartingcontraclockwise motion to the same and returning through the channels 28and 46 and the valve 36 to the starting-point. If now themanually-operated rod 55 is moved to the left a slight distance, none.of the valves except the valve 36 will be affected. This valve will bepartially turned in a contra-clockwise direction, thus partially chokingthe channel 28. When this occurs, the driving member 18 will create apartial vacuum in the pipe 29, thus causing the valve 30 to openinwardly to a greater or less extent, thereby admitting more or less airthrough the pipe 29. Owing to the tension of the spring 31 and the factthat the valve 36 is partially open, the flow of liquid through thepassage 28 will not be entirely stopped, and the amount of air admittedthrough the valve 30 is limited to a definite and constant quantity. Theresult is that the blades 20 21 propel a mixture of air and waterthrough the channels 27 and 45 to the driven member 19. As the airundergoes more or less compression, the extent of rotation of the member19 is necessarily less than that of the member 18, and a reduction inspeed is the resultthat is to say, the revoluble member 19 revolves moreslowly than the revoluble member 18. The rod 55 being moved stillfarther to the left,.tl1e channel 28 is choked to a still greater extentand the inflow of air through the valve 30 becomes copious. Atlast, whenthe valve 36 is turned into the position in which the channel 28 istotally obstructed, the revoluble member 18 receives no water and actsaltogether upon the air. It will be understood that during all this timethe water displaced from the channels 27 28 by the entrance of the airthrough the valve 30 is forced upward through the pipe 2 and into thetank 1. The air sucked in also passes up through the pipe 2 and throughthe liquid in the tank and escapes in the form of bubbles. When thevalve 36 totally cuts off the circulation through the channel 28, thevalve 34 begins to openthat is to say, the end 43 of the slot 40, bypressing against the crank-pin 41 and moving the crank 35 over to theleft, causes the valve 34 to begin to open just as the valve 36 closes.At this juncture air passes freely through the valve 30 and the pipe '29and is driven by the revoluble member 18 through the channels 27 andaround the revoluble member 19, making its escape through the pipe 2 andbubbling up through the Water in the tank 1. The apparatus is nowentirely pneumatic in its action-that is to say, itsaction amounts, ineffect, to a driving air-pump operating a driven air-pump. The rod 55being moved still farther to the left, the valve 34 opens to appreciableextent, with the result that the air propelled to the left through thechannel 27 by the revoluble member 18 makes its escape upward throughthe pipe 32, the valve 34, and the pipe 29 to the bottom of the casing3, and thence back to the revoluble member 18. In other words, the airmakes a complete local circuit from the member 18 through the pipesimmediately adjacent thereto and has no effect Whatever upon therevoluble member 19. The result is that when the valve 34 is completelyopen the revolu ble member 18 is free to revolve, whereas the member 19has no motion. More than this, any momentum in any mechanism connectedwith the shaft 5 is checked by the blades 22 23 tending to rotate, andthereby to force air into the tank 1 through the lower channel 28. Inother words, if the driven shaft 5 tends to rotate by its own m0- mentumor that of the machinery connected with it a back pressure is producedin the channel 28, which acts as a brake, and thereby stops the shaft 5and revoluble member 19 connected thereto.

The action of the reversing-valve 44 is quite simple. The valve whenshifted from its normal position (indicated in Fig. 3) to its abnormalposition (indicated in Fig. 4) simply causes the liquid or air ormixture thereof in the right-hand portion of the channel 27 to coursedownward into the left-hand portion of the channel 28 and the liquid orair returning through the left-hand portion of channel 27 to coursedownward to the right-hand portion of the channel 28, thus reversing thedirection of rotation of the member 19 and the shaft 5, driven thereby.As it would be dangerous to suddenly reverse the direction of rotationwithout cutting off the flow of the fluids through the channels 27 28,the device is so constructed that the reversing-valve 44 cannot be movedexcept when the flow of the fluids is completely stopped. This object iseflfected by means of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1. If any effort ismade to move the reversing-lever by means of the rod 58 or otherwise,the concave surface 52 of the head 51 is pressed against the convexsurface 54 of the head 37, so that the valve 44 cannot be moved, even toa slight extent, in either direction. If, however, the rod 55 is movedto the left until it reaches its limit, thereby closing the valve 36 andopening the valve 34, which thus serves as a by-pass, so that no IIO 'fluid can afiect the revoluble member 19, the

reversing-lever 50 may then be actuated that is to say, when the head 37moves downward a sufficient distance its convex surface 54 completelydisengages the concave surface 52 of the head 51 and leaves the head 51free to move. The reversing-lever 50 can then be moved by the rod 58into the position indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 1, in which eventthe concave surface 53 moves obliquely upward into the position shown infull lines as occupied by the concave surface 52 in Fig. 1. The concavesurface 52 will then occupy the position indicated by the dotted linesin Fig. l. The concave surface 53 being thus moved up in the positionnormally occupied by the concave surface 52, of course the lever 36 canbe moved back to its normal position, (indicated in Fig. 1,) so that theconvex surface 54 of the lever by'next engaging the concave surface 53of the head 51 prevents the reversing-lever 50 from being moved, whilethe flow of fluids through the left-hand portion of the casing isreversed.

It will therefore be observed that I have produced an eflicient speedingdevice whereby a driving-shaft of a given speed may confer a given speedupon a driven shaft and whereby this speed of the driven shaft can begradually reduced as compared with the speed of the driving-shaft and inwhich the speed of the driven shaft may be in the same direction as thatof the driving-shaft or in the opposite direction.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent- A fluid-pressure speeding device, comprising a hollowcasing provided with channels, a liquid-supply communicating with saidchannels, a revoluble member journaled within said casing and normallyfree to force a liquid through said channels, a revoluble memberjournaled Within said casing and normally driven by said liquidcirculating through said channels, a valve for obstructing the flow ofsaid liquid through one of said channels, an air-inlet connected with anautomatic valve and with one ofsaid channels, the valve connecting saidinlet to one of said channels, and means for connecting together saidconnectiug-valve and said valve for obstructing the flow of liquidthrough one of said channels.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

JO HN WIVECHMAN'N.

Witnesses:

FRANK lVIULLEB, J OHN H. KOREMAN.

